Email and data security company Mimecast latest Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) report, stated that many organisations believe that their current email security systems are up to the task of protecting them from phishing, but unfortunately many of them fall short and do not keep their organisations safe
The report shows the need for the entire industry to continue to work toward a higher standard of email security.
It revealed that many email attacks ranging from opportunistic spam to highly targeted impersonation attacks are getting through incumbent email security systems both in large number and variety.
The report found 26,305,457 spam emails, 27,156 malware attachments, 55,190 impersonation attacks and 466,905 malicious URLs, were all missed by these incumbent providers and delivered to users’ inboxes, an overall false negative rate of 11 per cent of inspected emails.
The study indicated that impersonation and phishing attacks are becoming a growing problem. According to the State of Email Security 2019 report, 85 per cent of the 1,025 global respondents experienced an impersonation attack in 2018, with 73 per cent of those victims had experienced a direct business impact – like financial, data or customer loss.
Not only that, but 94 per cent of the respondents said they experienced a phishing attack, with 55 per cent noting an increase in this type of attack year over year. This reaffirms the need for the industry to continue to provide better efficacy in their email protection to help organisations strengthen their cyber resilience to keep their data and communications safer.
Joshua Douglas, vice-president of threat intelligence at Mimecast, said, “The threat landscape continues to evolve as cybercriminals adapt their attack methods, particularly email-borne attacks, to evade the detection of traditional security solutions. This is becoming a huge problem for companies regardless of size -- across the globe. The ESRA results offer deep insights so our customers can better understand the types of attacks threatening their business.”
“Through better email security, paired with improved security awareness, Mimecast can help customers build a comprehensive cyber resilience strategy that prepares them to take on and defend against both known and unknown cyber threats,” he concluded.
